Auroras shimmer above the South Pole Telescope during the winter. New data from the experiment indicate that the birth of the first massive galaxies that lit up the early universe was an explosive event, happening faster and ending sooner than suspected.

Explosive event

South Pole Telescope eyes birth of first massive galaxies

From staff reports

Posted September 14, 2012

New data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) indicate that the birth of the first massive galaxies that lit up the early universe was an explosive event, happening faster and ending sooner than suspected.

Extremely bright, active galaxies formed and fully illuminated the universe by the time it was 750 million years old, or about 13 billion years ago, according to a new report published in the Sept. 1 print edition of The Astrophysical Journal.

The latest results are based on a new analysis that combines measurements taken by the National Science Foundation-funded SPT, which operates at millimeter wavelengths to make high-resolution images of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the light left over from the Big Bang.

The data provide new constraints on the universe’s first era of galaxy formation, called the Epoch of Reionization. Most astronomers think that early stars came to life in massive gas clouds, generating the first galaxies. The energetic light pumped out by these stars is thought to have ionized the hydrogen gas in and around the galaxies, creating “ionization bubbles” millions of light years across that left a lasting, telltale signature in the CMB.

The first epoch of ionization occurred after the universe was born in the Big Bang. Everything was so hot that all the gas, mostly hydrogen, was ionized. The universe only cooled enough for electrons to latch onto protons to form neutral hydrogen atoms when the universe was about 400,000 years old.

“Studying the Epoch of Reionization is important because it represents one of the few ways by which we can study the first stars and galaxies,” said study co-author John Carlstrom of the University of Chicago who is the principal investigator for the SPT experiment.

The epoch’s short duration suggests that reionization was more explosive than scientists had previously thought. It suggests that massive galaxies played a key role in reionization, because smaller galaxies would have formed much earlier. Rapid reionization also argues against many proposed astrophysical phenomena that would slow the process.

This is only the beginning of what astronomers expect to learn about reionization from the SPT. The current results are based on only the first third of the telescope’s full survey.

“We expect to measure the duration of reionization to within 50 million years with the current survey,” said study co-author Christian Reichardt, a Berkeley astrophysicist. “With planned upgrades to the instrument, we hope to improve this even further in the next five years.”

The 280-ton telescope stands more than 60 meters tall and is the largest astronomical telescope ever built in Antarctica’s clear, dry air. It sits at an elevation of more than 2,800 meters on the polar plateau. Because of its location at the Earth’s axis, it can conduct long-term observations of a single patch of sky.